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    Dec 22, 2024

    This Peace is Different

    This Peace is Different

    Passage: John 14:25-27

    Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

    Series: 2024 Advent - Peace On Earth: The First and Lasting Promise of Christmas

    Keywords: holy spirit, peace, heart, teach

    If we are to understand–and know!--this peace promised at His birth, we would best hear it from His own mouth. Why is His peace–the one He leaves us like an invaluable inheritance and gives us freely–not just unlike the kind of peace we might find from the world but better than it?

    CENTRAL TEXT:  John 14:25-27

    “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

     

    LIGHTING OF THE FOURTH ADVENT CANDLE: Matthew 1:18-23

    18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means God with us.)

     

    PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH:  Matthew 5:3-9

    LEADER:   Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
    Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 
    Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 
    Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 
    Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 
    Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 
    Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 
    The Word of the LORD

    ALL:   Thanks be to God

     

     

    CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER: 

     

    CONFESSION OF SIN:  

    LEADER:  Let us confess our sin to God.

    ALL:  You made us and rescued us to have Your peace. But we tend to rest ours on what is frail and fragile, which is no lasting peace. And yet we persist. Forgive us our stubborn will to create what cannot last. Forgive us our stubborn refusal to receive what we cannot lose.

     

    ASSURANCE OF PARDON:     Ephesians 2:14-18

    LEADER:    For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 

    ALL: Thanks be to God.

     

     

    RELATED SCRIPTURES:

    • Isaiah 9:6
    • Ezekiel 37:26
    • Romans 5:1

     

    QUOTES:  

    • [Peace is] the highest of blessings. . . a gift no human being can bestow.”  
      - Philo of Alexandria, c. 1st century
    • Peace, indeed, is serenity of mind, tranquility of soul, simplicity of heart, the bond of love, the fellowship of charity. It removes hatred, settles wars, restrains wrath, tramples on pride, loves the humble, pacifies the discordant and makes enemies agree. For it is pleasing to everyone. . . .It teaches people to love because it does not know how to get angry, or to extol itself or become inflated with pride. It is meek and humble to everyone, possessing rest and tranquility within itself. When the peace of Christ is exercised by a Christian, it is brought to perfection by Christ. If anyone loves it, he will be an heir of God, while anyone who despises it rebels against Christ.
      - Caesarius of Arles
    • Consider the analogy of the sunbeam: each person on whom its kindly light falls rejoices as if the sun existed for him alone, yet it illumines land and sea and is master of the atmosphere.
      - Basil the Great
    • For if–so long as we are in this corruptible body that burdens the soul and are walking by faith, not by sight–he does not forsake those who are sojourning at a distance from himself, how much more, when we have attained to that sight, shall he fill us with himself?
      - Augustine
    • The world’s peace is external and often more hurtful than profitable, and it is of no real advantage to those who possess it.
      - Chrysostom
    • Love gave the blow which for a while makes the desert more dreary, but Heaven more home-like. There is a homecoming awaiting me which no parting shall break into, no tears mar.
      - Hudson Taylor
    • We all want to matter in the eyes of others. We crave esteem, admiration, and respect. We long for love. So we seek our worth in the eyes of others. . . . Finding unconditional positive regard in another person is practically impossible. Not because our parents, friends, or spouses are cruel or mean…just that they are themselves lost and unwell. . . . In the end, social [significance], for many of us will never be able to fully provide an unconditional foundation of value, one wholly stable and transcendently dependable.
      - Richard Beck,       The Shape of Joy